Climate Change Story – Brewing resilience: Navigating climate challenges in Samoa’s kava industry

Samoa’s climate projections indicate a future marked by climate change. Rising temperatures, more frequent episodes of extreme rainfall and increasingly intense cyclones are expected to impact the economy, with agriculture likely the most severely affected.

Crops like kava, the Samoan variety of which is known as ‘ava’, typically thrive in conditions that are not excessively hot or dry; and extreme rainfall and cyclones can lead to waterlogging and damage to kava trees. Kava processing is also at risk, as unseasonal rainfall can impact root drying, and kava washing requires access to water.